Hold a 25- to 45-pound plate against your chest and lower into a parallel squat position. Perform 10-15 mini squats—rapid, small bursts without going all the way up. Drop the plate on the grass and immediately explode into a sprint.

Routine: 5x5 yards, 5x10 yards, 5x15 yards/ 60 seconds rest

Coaching Point: Don’t go all the way up on the mini squats; they should be tiny little bursts.

The Payoff: Too much sprinting is done with fresh legs; you warm-up, then go out on the field and sprint. In a football game, you’re always doing a fatiguing movement before exploding. To duplicate that, we fatigue the speed muscles—glutes, quads and hamstrings—then sprint.